Carpenter & Main

Good service food was ok.

Great live jazz trio on Tuesday nights featuring an occasional guest vocals. Interesting, well prepared small plates on the menu, decent wine selection, several local beers on tap, inventive cocktails and friendly professional service all tucked into a classic New England style country setting. Semi-formal dining as well as a cozy bar area.

Across from the Norwich Inn, where we visit every year, Carpenter and Main is easy to overlook, but it is more than worth searching out. By the way, the website photos dont capture the close and subtle conviviality of the place - except for the photos of the bar, which do. The dining area behind the bar has a tucked-away alcove for two, which we only discovered in our most recent visit. The food and service are simply outstanding. If you're in the area - Hanover, Dartmouth, King Arthur cooking school -Search it out if you have to, don't overlook it..

One of my favorites, I don't go often enough

Enjoyed many facets about this place. Lovely rustic decor and an amazing staff. I would bump it to a 5 star, but the food was underwhelming and definitely could use some TLC from the fine folks in the kitchen. We received the Thai lettuce wraps, and it was clear that nobody bothered to check the product before selling it. Not only was there far too much fish sauce in the pork, it was soupy and quite frankly foul. My escargots were a classic preparation, but needed salt desperately. If one does not properly season escargot, and serves them with a tomato based sauce, the predominant taste becomes the slugginess (earth) of the snails, as opposed to their natural meaty bouquet of flavors. Looked lovely on the menu, was beautiful on the table, but was disappointing in my mouth. :/